Houston Rockets star forward Kevin Durant made some major NBA history on Friday night during Houston’s 117-98 victory over the Phoenix Suns as he became just the eighth player in league history to score 31,000 points over the course of his career. Ironically enough, the milestone came against Durant’s former franchise in Phoenix.
Durant is one of the absolute best scorers that the league has ever seen, and the history books reflect that. The only other players to ever score 31,000 points are LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Dirk Nowitzki and Wilt Chamberlain. All legends.
Congrats to Kevin Durant of the @HoustonRockets for becoming the 8th player in NBA history to reach 31,000 career PTS! Pic.twitter.com/NXM9h0PPDD
— NBA (@NBA) December 6, 2025
Durant is No. 8 overall in scoring in league history, but he could have an opportunity to pass both Chamberlain and Nowitzki to move into the sixth spot this season.
After the win over the Suns, Durant reflected on his latest scoring accomplishment and made it clear that he doesn’t plan to slow down any time soon.
“As you're coming up into the league, you look at these guys as heroes and you put them on pedestals, and you look at their accomplishments as sometimes unreachable," Durant said. "But then you get on that road trying to do your thing. That's how I've done since 2008. I've been focused on trying to be the best player I can be, and they set a standard for each player when they left the league. Guys like Wilt, Michael, Kobe -- I'm missing so many guys. They just set a standard that I try to reach every day.
"I just felt like if I locked in and did what I did, I could be mentioned in the same breath as those guys. That's the confidence I had, but I knew it was going to be a tough journey. I've got more to do. I'm grateful to still be playing, and hopefully I keep doing this, moving up the charts."
Durant may be 37 years old, but he's shown virtually no signs of decline when it comes to putting the ball in the basket. He's averaging 25.2 points per game while shooting 50 percent from the floor for the Rockets this season. If he keeps it up, he'll quickly become just the sixth player ever to reach the 32,000-point plateau.